theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards
Mentalism
- Thread starter thageek
- Start date
First of all, what do you have? Second, what have you studied?
Since you're a card guy, I'll mention the section on mental discoveries in Expert Card Technique, and there are a few tricks in Royal Road that lend themselves to a mentalist twist. Try your hand at a few of those and see what reactions you get. I'll also recommend you get Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic and/or the Tarbell Course. Both have great sections on mentalism work. After that, there's always Anemanns Practical Mental Magic or Corindia's 13 Steps to Mentalism.
As far as DVD's go the This is Mentalism Series is great.
Before you get too far into it, here's a quote from David Berglas at the 2012 EMC conference. Don't take this as me saying don't try mentalism, do try it, but keep this in mind. This quote is in response to the question, what advice do you have for a beginner studying and trying to learn both magic and mentalism?
"Well they won't like it. As you know I'm extremely passionate about magic and I don't think you should be a mentalist or even put in a mentalist routine unless you have that kind of personality… It depends very much on believability… Stick to magic which there are so many different phases. As far as mentalists are concerned, once you've got the confidence to speak to people and make yourself believable, then start trying some mentalist things."
Since you're a card guy, I'll mention the section on mental discoveries in Expert Card Technique, and there are a few tricks in Royal Road that lend themselves to a mentalist twist. Try your hand at a few of those and see what reactions you get. I'll also recommend you get Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic and/or the Tarbell Course. Both have great sections on mentalism work. After that, there's always Anemanns Practical Mental Magic or Corindia's 13 Steps to Mentalism.
As far as DVD's go the This is Mentalism Series is great.
Before you get too far into it, here's a quote from David Berglas at the 2012 EMC conference. Don't take this as me saying don't try mentalism, do try it, but keep this in mind. This quote is in response to the question, what advice do you have for a beginner studying and trying to learn both magic and mentalism?
"Well they won't like it. As you know I'm extremely passionate about magic and I don't think you should be a mentalist or even put in a mentalist routine unless you have that kind of personality… It depends very much on believability… Stick to magic which there are so many different phases. As far as mentalists are concerned, once you've got the confidence to speak to people and make yourself believable, then start trying some mentalist things."
Agreed with YRAMagicMan. I say just set mentalism aside for now. I know it seems really appealing, but you're probably not ready for it unless you've got a really solid background in theater, seeing as you say you're new to magic. Magic and Mentalism are related, definitely, but they are two completely different beasts with completely different skill sets. Mentalism requires far more theater and far more commitment if one wants to do it well. Failure to be one's character 24/7 means one will be seen as just another magician.
Dont let anyone put you off at least reading some books. ChrisT and YRAMagicMan are probably right but it never hurts to do a little research into the field. Who knows, maybe you'll love it so much you'll give up cards to become a full time mentalist, or you may hate it. The least it can do is give you a clear picture of what you want to do, or maybe improve your card magic by implementing some basic psychological techniques and subtleties.
Ps. this is coming from someone in your shoes, im primarily a card guy but im doing research into mentalism to see if its something i might want to do in the future.
Ps. this is coming from someone in your shoes, im primarily a card guy but im doing research into mentalism to see if its something i might want to do in the future.
I advise studying the basics and learning basic stage craft and performance skills because if one tries to to do mentalism before they have those skills, it will not be as powerful as it can be and they are more likely to decide that mentalism is not for them.
I went down the same path and have only recently gotten back to the mental stuff now that i can do it right.
I went down the same path and have only recently gotten back to the mental stuff now that i can do it right.
First of All, LISTEN to what Christopher and others have already said, I'll echo it here but not as directly. It is imperative that you start with the basics and not worry about Mentalism until you know how to do (perform) traditional magic. As a parent however, I know you're not going to listen to such wisdom so here's the down low. . .
Start here. . . at the back of the book you will find a list of chief study titles
The PDF I gave you the link to is FREE and will give you a far more complete overview as to what Mentalism is and isn't than most sources that have come out in the past decade or so. Understand too, that Mentalism is NOT the same as doing Magic; the psychology is completely different and too, Mentalism is very performance heavy -- you must be a solid showman and have excellent people management skills if you're to present good mentalism.
Traditionally the starter books that everyone will point you to are 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda and Annemann's Practical Mental Magic. I'd add to this the Karl Fulve's Self-Working Mentalism Effects text and Banachek's Psychological Subtleties Vol 1 when it comes to foundation. I also have a FREE pdf that will soon be out, that deals with one of the most important secret weapons used in Mentalism -- The Swami (I'm very excited about this one in that I have contributions in it by some rather interesting VIP types like Lee Earle and Jeff McBride).
COLD READING is another skill you must cultivate in order to do effective Mentalism. If you follow the link you will find another FREE PDF that gives you the ins & outs around said practice.
If you are young doing mentalism effectively can prove a challenge; depending on your age, claiming to be an "expert" in body language or NLP as many currently do, simply isn't believable and thus, you need to find a claim that works for your situation. As you will find in those books, I encourage you to use your own life and family line as inspiration for creating your persona and claim. The more facts and truths you can sew into things, the better well received you will be and thus, the more prone your audience will be when it comes to believing you. Unlike traditional magic Mentalism requires belief and even solicits such -- disbelief is suspended. The problem is, so many have cheapened this side of things in recent years, by not paying attention to this factor.
Anywho, the two freebies will get you on your way and give you a huge list of resources, far more than anyone is going to expect you to ever go through.
Best of luck!
Start here. . . at the back of the book you will find a list of chief study titles
The PDF I gave you the link to is FREE and will give you a far more complete overview as to what Mentalism is and isn't than most sources that have come out in the past decade or so. Understand too, that Mentalism is NOT the same as doing Magic; the psychology is completely different and too, Mentalism is very performance heavy -- you must be a solid showman and have excellent people management skills if you're to present good mentalism.
Traditionally the starter books that everyone will point you to are 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda and Annemann's Practical Mental Magic. I'd add to this the Karl Fulve's Self-Working Mentalism Effects text and Banachek's Psychological Subtleties Vol 1 when it comes to foundation. I also have a FREE pdf that will soon be out, that deals with one of the most important secret weapons used in Mentalism -- The Swami (I'm very excited about this one in that I have contributions in it by some rather interesting VIP types like Lee Earle and Jeff McBride).
COLD READING is another skill you must cultivate in order to do effective Mentalism. If you follow the link you will find another FREE PDF that gives you the ins & outs around said practice.
If you are young doing mentalism effectively can prove a challenge; depending on your age, claiming to be an "expert" in body language or NLP as many currently do, simply isn't believable and thus, you need to find a claim that works for your situation. As you will find in those books, I encourage you to use your own life and family line as inspiration for creating your persona and claim. The more facts and truths you can sew into things, the better well received you will be and thus, the more prone your audience will be when it comes to believing you. Unlike traditional magic Mentalism requires belief and even solicits such -- disbelief is suspended. The problem is, so many have cheapened this side of things in recent years, by not paying attention to this factor.
Anywho, the two freebies will get you on your way and give you a huge list of resources, far more than anyone is going to expect you to ever go through.
Best of luck!
hahaha what a small world, i was the one who asked that question to david berglas on the emc =)
what he said is very true, presenting mentalism is not easy, if you dont do it right people will feel it as "tricks" and they wont like it, maybe you should try various types of magic for a while, i started with cards but now i mostly do coins, so maybe you will find other things that you can do and feel good doing.
if you want to start reading mentalism, anneman´s practical mental magic has a lot of effects that are more mental magic than mentalism.
what he said is very true, presenting mentalism is not easy, if you dont do it right people will feel it as "tricks" and they wont like it, maybe you should try various types of magic for a while, i started with cards but now i mostly do coins, so maybe you will find other things that you can do and feel good doing.
if you want to start reading mentalism, anneman´s practical mental magic has a lot of effects that are more mental magic than mentalism.
hahaha what a small world, i was the one who asked that question to david berglas on the emc =)